Rainbow Water Receives 2025 APWA Honorary Project of the Year Award

The San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Public Works Association (APWA) awarded Rainbow Water with the 2025 Honor Project of the Year Award for the Division 1 Pump Station project at an awards ceremony held in San Diego on May 29, 2025. 

The APWA Project of the Year Award was developed to recognize excellence in management and implementation of projects coordinated by public agencies, contractors, consultants, architects, and engineers. The awards are categorized in six areas, including disaster repair, environmental, historical preservation, structures, sustainable/green, transportation and utilities. Rainbow Water shares the Honor Project of the Year Award in the utilities category with project consultants Hoch Consulting, Valley CM, Verdantas, Hydrotech Electric, Helix Environmental and contractor Pacific Hydrotech Corporation. The award was received by Rainbow Water's Engineering department team members Chad Williams and Malik Tamimi, and Cari Dale from Hoch Consulting.

"We are honored to receive the esteemed award from the APWA," said Jake Wiley, general manager of Rainbow Water. "The Division 1 Pump Station project was a testament to our team’s perseverance, dedication, and commitment to deliver reliable water to our community. Our team worked tireless to complete the project ahead of schedule while working in concert with our consultants and community partners."

Rainbow Water completed the Division 1 Pump Stations project in eight months, with the installation of three prefabricated potable water pump stations to increase water supply reliability and allow the district to secure a lower cost wholesale water supply. The three pump stations deliver water to the Hutton, Turner, and Gopher Tank Zones in Rainbow Water's southern region by transporting water supply from the northern connections.

Extreme coordination efforts were implemented to ensure delivery of each prefabricated pump station was timed to coincide with the construction schedule, resulting in the pump stations placed into position immediately upon delivery to the sites. The construction of the new pump stations at Dentro De Lomas, Rancho Amigos and West Lilac allows Rainbow Water to move up to 15 million gallons per day (28 cubic feet per second or CFS) to meet peak demands and minimizes the impact of an outage. The pump stations alleviated the previous need to rent and install temporary pump stations at various locations with reduced pumping capacity. In addition, the pump stations proved to be a vital asset to keep water service in operation during the Pala and Lilac Fires in January, and San Diego County Water Authority's 21-day emergency pipeline repair to the regional Pipeline 4 in June.

The Division 1 Pump Station project is a vital infrastructure improvement that serves to meet the needs of Rainbow Water's growing community and keep water flowing efficiently without uninterrupted service.